


Let's Separate Like Yesterday

by amaryllaus



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaryllaus/pseuds/amaryllaus
Summary: Mark and Jaemin decide to go on one last adventure before Jaemin moves for college while Jaemin pretends he still doesn't have a crush on Mark
Relationships: Mark Lee/Na Jaemin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	Let's Separate Like Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> this is not beta-ed lol I just felt like completing this since this was in the drafts for so long

There are certain friends you make that no matter the time apart you can always act close with. Someone who you aren’t afraid to act yourself with. That person for Jaemin was Mark. Mark, the overachieving upperclassman who never failed to be there for Jaemin. Mark, who was able to bring Jaemin out of his shell so easily when Jaemin first moved in. They’ve only known each other for two years, but in those two years, Mark was able to be one of Jaemin’s closest friends. 

When Mark graduated, Jaemin was completely devastated even though Mark was going to a local community college. Still, Jaemin was never the best at keeping in contact with people. Mark would usually be the one texting him first and even then it was on very rare occasions. Each time Mark talked to Jaemin they both were able to talk to each other as if Mark never really left. Every time they meet Jaemin was always left with this feeling of giddiness inside. Now, one year later, Jaemin just graduated and plans to move to the other side of the country. 

For the past couple of weeks, Jaemin has been trying to hang out with his friends before he leaves. Most of these hangouts have been with Mark. Mark seemed to be the one putting in the most effort out of all Jaemin’s friends to be with him. Mark always seems to be excited every time they hang out and it's more or less contagious. Jaemin’s younger self would be screaming. 

When Jaemin first met Mark, Jaemin had the biggest crush on him. It was sadly not reciprocated, a fact that Jaemin had to accept after the third rejection. It was okay though. Jaemin was older and wiser. He’s over it. He’s totally over it or at least that’s what he told himself every time Mark dropped him off and he’s left alone with his thoughts. It didn’t matter anyways Jaemin was going to leave in a few days and tonight was the last time they will hang out for a very long time. 

Jaemin looked at his phone. It was almost midnight. The plan was to hang out during the day, but then Mark had the brilliant idea of driving two hours away in the middle of the night with his electric car to see how far he can go. Needless to say, Mark had to wait for his car to charge and when he got home it was already 3 pm and he was exhausted. So, they decided to change plans and go bowling at midnight. Jaemin decided to take a huge nap before they met up. He hadn’t told his parents about this whole midnight bowling session, but what they don’t know won’t hurt them. He had set an alarm for 10 pm which should be plenty of time to get ready. 

A little after 11, Mark texted him an “on my way.” Now, it’s almost midnight and Jaemin was waiting outside. A few minutes later, Mark arrived and called Jaemin. Jaemin waited a few seconds before picking up his call. 

“I’m here.” Mark chirped. 

“I can see that.” Jaemin swallowed the smile that was creeping upon him. He needed to calm down. Just hearing Mark’s voice and knowing he’ll be hanging out with him is already making Jaemin’s head spin. 

“Wait, I think someone’s walking up to me,” Mark said with a very serious tone. 

Jaemin rolled his eyes. “Mark.” 

Mark continued his little shenanigan. “They’re looking at me. Jaemin help.” 

There was a click of Mark unlocking the car doors. Jaemin opened the passenger door. 

Mark gasped despite being the one who unlocked the car. “They’re in my car.” 

Jaemin ended the call and closed the door. “You’re an idiot.”

Mark smiled at him like he wasn’t just acting like a fool. “So bowling?” 

Jaemin coughed to hold a laugh and synched up his phone so he could play music. “Yeah bowling.”

The drive there was peaceful. There was something different about driving on the highway late at night. It was like a whole different dimension. The highways were mostly empty and the city lights illuminated the sky. It was like it was just a world where it was only him and Mark. Jaemin would usually play more upbeat music, but tonight called for a more relaxing tone. 

Mark hummed. “This is like that music that plays in that study playlist thing on youtube.” 

“It’s called lofi hip hop,” Jaemin mumbled.

Mark chuckled. “Quite different from NCT.” 

“I played like one song from them.” 

Mark raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Their past hangouts consisted of Jaemin playing nothing but NCT songs during their commute. Mark had indulged the younger and even encouraged Jaemin to turn the music higher. 

Jaemin covered his face with his hands. He would never let anyone see him acting like a fool and he always acted like a fool when an NCT song came up. But Mark wasn’t just anyone. “Shut up.” 

“I didn’t even say anything,” Mark said matter of factly. 

Jaemin crossed his arms. “I can feel you mocking me.” 

“Well.” Mark shrugged. 

“Bro.” A word Jaemin had to force himself to use with Mark to make it seem like he only saw Mark as a friend and a friend only. “You're not supposed to agree with me.” He lightly punched Mark’s arm.

”Ow!” Mark pretended to be hurt. “So you want me to lie?” 

“Yes,” Jaemin mumbled. 

Mark raised an eyebrow at Jaemin before bursting into giggles. “Don’t worry. I think it’s cute how you know every word to every NCT song.” 

Jaemin groaned. Hearing the word cute come out of Mark’s mouth and having it describe Jaemin made the butterflies in his stomach be even more apparent. He pushed the feeling down and cleared his throat. 

… 

It was actually the first time Jaemin had gone to this bowling alley. There were a few cars parked surprisingly. When they entered the building a sign about laser tag greeted them. Jaemin was about to suggest going to that next time but remembered that he was going to leave in a few days. Mark had commented about going there with his other friends and Jaemin had replied saying he never actually went laser tagging before. Only the bowling place was open, however. 

Mark continued walking towards the bowling place, with a little confusement. Jaemin followed behind and pointed Mark to the sign with the words “bowling alley” and an arrow pointing towards a door. 

Mark pat Jaemin’s back. “Wow, Jaemin you’re so smart.” 

“Thanks, I can read.” 

Mark laughed and Jaemin tried not to think about how cute Mark’s laugh was. Jaemin tried focusing on the other people in the bowling alley. It was mostly empty besides a group of college students and a family. They continued walking until they were greeted by what seemed to be the only worker that night. He explained the buying options and before Jaemin could even think about getting his wallet to pay for his share, Mark had already placed his money on the table. 

For every meetup, they had Mark had paid for Jaemin. He explained how it was the least he can do and that it was like a goodbye gift for Jaemin. Still, Jaemin couldn’t help but feel that he should contribute at least half of the payment. Mark was very stubborn though. 

After receiving their bowling shoes, they went towards the lane that the worker had told them they could use. Mark went immediately to the machine and typed out “Jammin” for one of the player’s names. In retaliation, Jaemin put “Marker”. 

Mark laughed sarcastically. “Very creative.” 

“Like Jammin was any better.” Jaemin rebutted. 

“Hey, I thought about this the whole car ride.” Mark pouted. 

Cute, Jaemin thought. He grinned. “Get ready to lose marker.” 

Jaemin was bluffing mostly, but he didn’t expect Mark to actually lose this badly. Jaemin was ahead by 100 points. Mark was getting gutter after gutter. Jaemin was starting to feel pity. 

“You can’t possibly be this bad.” Jaemin had told Mark when the round ended. 

Mark smiled sheepishly. “Let’s play another round.” 

This time, the scores were pretty close. Mark had won with ten more points. Jaemin may or may not have let him win. They played for another round, with the two being neck and neck again. In the end, Jaemin won much to Mark’s dismay. 

It was nearing 3 am when Mark and Jaemin decided to end their bowling session and returned the bowling shoes. It seemed like just a minute ago they arrived at the bowling alley. Being with Mark always felt like time was passing too fast. They walked around the arcade before heading back to their car. It would be cute if he and Mark had an arcade date. Jaemin pushed the idea down. 

Once they were inside the car Jaemin asked, “You let me win the first round, didn't you?” 

Mark nodded sheepishly. “Was it that obvious?” 

“Mark you went from getting gutter after gutter in the first round to strikes in the last round.” 

Mark started the engine. “What if I just suddenly got that good?” 

“Okay marker.” Jaemin started connecting his phone to the car’s Bluetooth. 

Mark stared at Jaemin, seemingly contemplating something. “We should watch the sunrise together.” 

“What.” Jaemin took a deep breath. This sounded more and more like a date. It took a while for Jaemin to convince himself it wasn’t a date every time he and Mark hung out, but Mark always does shit like this and Jaemin couldn’t help but indulge his hopeless romantic side of his brain. 

Mark shrugged. “Or do you want to go home?” 

“No!” Jaemin said too fast and too panicked for his own liking. “I mean yeah we should watch the sunrise together that sounds nice.” 

Mark smiled at him and Jaemin kinda wanted to die inside. “Okay cool. I know this spot where we can watch the sunrise.” Mark started to drive. “We still have like two hours until the sun rises. What do you want to do?” 

Jaemin shrugged. He doesn’t know why Mark even bothers asking him what he wants to do when he’s indecisive as fuck. Mark always ended up being the one choosing where they should go. 

Mark hummed. “Well, I’m getting kinda tired. We should get coffee.” 

“Sounds good.” Jaemin put his seatbelt on and pressed shuffle on his chill playlist on Spotify. 

“You okay with Dutch Bros? They’re the only ones I can think of right now that’s open.”

“Yeah that’s fine you’re the one drinking the coffee Mark.” Jaemin fiddled with his phone. It was a better alternative to staring at the older. Not like Mark would notice anyway. He was too busy focusing on the road right now. 

“Yes, but I'm also buying a drink for you,” Mark said. “I remember you and your coffee addiction.” 

Jaemin sat up straighter. “I do not have a coffee addiction.” His daily six cups of coffee beg to differ but Mark didn’t need to know that. 

Mark hummed, a tiny smirk forming. “Right. Like I wasn’t there when you had bad coffee withdrawals last year and I had to be the one to get you coffee during lunch.”

“Well, I don’t have a coffee addiction anymore. People change.” Although when Mark used to get coffee for Jaemin, Jaemin drank fewer cups. 

Mark doesn’t seem to believe him. “It’s a free drink.” 

Jaemin sunk deeper into his seat. “Fine.” 

Mark smiled, knowing he won this round. It wasn’t fair. Mark always won. Mark has Jaemin wrapped tightly around his finger and he doesn’t even know. 

They arrive at a small drive-thru for Dutch Bros. Mark ordered for both of them and even flirted a little with the cashier. Gosh, Jaemin wanted to die. He was not jealous because being jealous meant he still had feelings for Mark and he didn’t. Not anymore. 

Mark handed him his drink and Jaemin lingered his hands a bit before taking it. They were parked at the small parking lot. Mark already reclined his seat once Jaemin took his drink.

“Do you remember when we first met?” Mark asked. 

Of course, Jaemin remembered. He remembered seeing a cute guy and falling head over heels before he even knew his name. 

Jaemin cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

Mark turned to him. “What was your first impression of me?”

Jaemin took a sip of his coffee. He needed it. “Well, I thought I really wanted to be your friend.” Not technically a lie. Jaemin did want to be his friend. Maybe more than that at some point. 

Mark giggled. “Well, we’re friends now! It worked out in the end.” 

Jaemin took another sip of coffee. He looked at the window shield, looked at the sky they were under. “Yes, it did.” Even if he and Mark never got together at least he got a good friend out of it. “How about you? What was your first impression of me?” 

“Hmmm.” Mark crossed his arms and pondered. “The same as you. I wanted to be your friend.” 

He sounded really sincere and Jaemin felt somewhat bad for his kind of lie. Mark really did see him as a good friend and maybe even a long term one. Meanwhile, Jaemin was pining over him for most of their friendship. He wasn’t inauthentic with his compassion for Mark but at the same time, it felt like he was only being friends with Mark because he had some ulterior motives. It wasn’t like Jaemin only became friends with Mark to get into--

“You still talk to Lucas?” Mark asked which took Jaemin out of his inner conflict.

Jaemin shook his head.

“I miss the dude. I hope he’s doing alright,” Mark smiled.

Lucas. Jaemin remembered him and Mark being at each other’s hip for most of their Junior year. Lucas knew Jaemin’s feelings. Of course, he did. It wasn’t like Jaemin was trying to hide them and even if he did Jaemin was very obvious when it comes to his crushes. Lucas was also the first person to tell Jaemin the hard truth that Mark was just not that really into him. It didn’t stop Jaemin from confessing three times but he appreciated that he at least gave Jaemin a warning of his doom. 

Mark continued to talk about the memories he and Jaemin shared. Like the time they played Minecraft after Mark’s heart was broken after his boyfriend broke up with him or the time Mark went out of his way to buy a cake for Jaemin’s birthday or during lunch where he and Jaemin were always seen together

“Yeah, my friend Johnny would joke around that you were my boyfriend cause we were always together.” 

It felt like a lump was stuck on Jaemin’s throat. “I guess we were.” 

Mark was gonna go on another long tangent about their friendship when he realized that his cup was empty. “Oh.” He looked at the time. 5 am. “We should start heading to the sunrise spot.” 

“The sunrise spot?”

“Yeah it’s...well you’ll see.” He adjusts his seat back to the regular position. “It’s on this open field and you can see the sunrise pretty well there. I don’t know how to describe it but I know you’ll like it.” 

Of course, Jaemin would like it. There was already a buzz of excitement when Mark had first offered to watch the sunrise together. It sounded like a scene from some cliche teen romance movie, watching the sunrise with your crush before moving far away. Besides, any place with Mark, Jaemin would like. 

Mark started the engine. “Or I hope you do.” 

They had to drive through some dark scary looking road to reach the sunrise spot, but Jaemin found it beautiful nonetheless. It was on the outskirts of town and Mark was right when describing it to be an open field. The airport could be seen from a distance but the rest was just a field. It was still dark and Mark struggled a bit finding a good place to park because he didn’t know where the sun would rise. 

“Well, we’ll see whether or not I was right when the sun rises.” 

Mark turned out to be right. They were parked facing the sun. It was a little cold outside so the two decided to stay inside the car after watching the sunrise. Jaemin couldn’t help staring at Mark too. Mark was smiling oh so wide when he saw the sun starting to rise. He was way more excited than Jaemin. It was always Mark who saw the beauty in everything. Jaemin was thankful that Mark was too busy looking at the sun to notice Jaemin staring at him. 

Mark turned to look at Jaemin “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

Jaemin nodded. “Yeah. It’s beautiful.” 

The hangout wasn’t over just yet. Mark pulled out a guitar from the trunk and decided to play a bit. Jaemin has never seen Mark play guitar and he kinda wished he hadn’t. Mark was good at the guitar and Jaemin could already feel himself falling deeper. 

“Any requests?” Mark asked.

Jaemin shook his head. 

Mark seemed to contemplate for a moment. “How about Best Part by Daniel Caesar?” 

Oh, Jaemin was fucked. Mark started singing and Jaemin held onto every note. Jaemin decided to sing too and Mark gave him an encouraging smile. Mark was a good singer no matter how many times Mark said he wasn’t properly warmed up or the other bullshit excuses Mark said to him. Jaemin secretly recorded him singing just for memory's sake. They continued to sing some more songs until it was a somewhat appropriate time to eat breakfast. Which was about 7 am. 

Mark drove them to the closest IHOP. Like last time, Mark paid for both of them. Jaemin savored the remaining time they had together. Every good thing has to come to an end, however. Mark had to come home before his parents woke up. It looked like Jaemin wasn’t the only one who didn’t tell their parents about their little midnight adventure. Mark dropped Jaemin off but before Jaemin walked inside, Mark gave him a tight hug. 

“I’m gonna miss you,” Mark whispered. 

Jaemin buried his face onto Mark’s shoulder. “Me too.” 

Mark gave him one last pat on the back before heading back to his car. Mark made sure Jaemin entered his house before leaving. Jaemin flopped onto his bed with a sigh. He forced himself not to cry. It was over. He was over Mark. He had to be. 

**Author's Note:**

> okay this might have been based on a true story haha i started writing this to help deal with a crush but it’s been a hot minute and i got over them lol the person really gave me high expectations for dates tho. i might make a sequel of the two ending up together but don't get your hopes up


End file.
